Project X

All Rights Reserved

© 2015 Luna Black

~*~

Author's Note: Alexa doesn't know she's pregnant. She didn't understand what Rhys said, so that's why she does a couple of crazy things. Please read the note at the end of the chapter. Don't skip it and ask the question that is being answered.

Xander snarled at her, his pitch black eyes glimmering with hatred towards the Griod that hurt Alexa. His eyes flickered to her and he visibly relaxed. Dram was helping her to her feet and she seemed to recover rather quickly.

"That bïtch!" Alexa moaned, wrapping her arm around Dram's waist as he helped her limp towards his spot on the squadron; right in front of everyone, but behind Xander.

Dram lightly touched her neck, searching for any contusions and shook his head in silent acknowledgement. She was alright. "The Xrion blood in you prevented your death," he uttered quietly.

She nodded, letting go of his waist to stand on her own and breathed in deeply. The pain was slowly subsiding, but the memory of the woman backhanding her feet off the ground kept replaying in her mind. It was pissing her off.

When she had growled at Rhys, she didn't know it was a challenge. She didn't even know why she growled. The feeling was almost primal; instinctual. Rhys was a threat and something inside of Alexa snapped, wanting to fight the threat off.

All rational thought left her, it was as if she were possessed by something stronger than she was and she didn't have enough time to stop it. The snarl came from deep within her and if Rhys hadn't backhanded her, she was almost certain that she would have won that fight.

"Xander," Rhys said quietly, taking tentative steps towards him, "ti mi vjo."

"What is she saying?" Alexa whispered, feeling irritated that the Queen had to speak Klázto.

Dram widened his eyes, a strange emotion flickering in his eyes as he whispered, "Rhys is Xander's mother."

Her heart dropped to the pit of her stomach as Xander stumbled backwards, away from the woman, a plethora of emotions flashed across his eyes and the silence began. It was almost suffocating the soldiers; the suspense was too massive.

That monster could not be Xander's mother. Xander loved his mom and whatever that thing was – was not lovable.

"Ayaní?" Xander whispered, his blue eyes still wide as he stared at her.

Rhys nodded, a smile growing on her beautiful yet scary face. Her teeth somehow turned smaller and she – for a second – looked...normal. Well about as normal as a woman with long silver hair and white pupils could look.

Suddenly a silver plane flew overhead and in a blink of an eye, there was an explosion occurring. The U.S. military had dropped a bomb on the Griods.

Rhys shrieked an ominous sound and suddenly Xander straightened his back and pulled out a stálo.

Alexa felt as if everything was happening in slow motion. The soldier that was standing next to her dropped to his knees as a weapon pierced his heart and battle cries were released with fury. Her heart began to pound in her ears loudly, making her feel almost incapacitated.

Dram quickly grabbed the fallen soldier's stálo and threw it at Alexa. She caught it, somehow snapping out of her confusion and he grabbed her arm before she could turn away. "Staying near me means survival."

She nodded quickly and tried to locate herself. Her mind felt lost; she was frozen on the spot.

"Alexa!" Dram bellowed, yanking her out of a Griods way. He shook her shoulder violently and cried something out, but the adrenaline began to pump through her blood and she seemed to finally understand what was happening.

Alexa tightened her hands on her weapon and blocked a sword from piercing through her stomach. The Griod growled at her, his sharp canines blubbering with saliva and she grimaced as she kicked her foot unto his stomach.

He lunged at her again, but she twisted her body out of his way and pierced the end of the stálo in his heart. He stared at her with surprised eyes and then fell to his knees.

Alexa grunted as she tried to yank the stálo out and used her foot to kick the body off. Dark red blood, almost black, dripped from the blade slowly as if it was a thick substance and she grimaced.

Remorse and guilt nowhere to be found; she was defending what was hers.

A female Griod ran towards her, baring her teeth like a hunter following its prey and knocked Alexa to the ground. She huffed, holding her shoulders to keep her sharp teeth away from her body.

It took a little, but somehow Alexa managed to roll them over the ground and she sat on her attacker. The Griod hissed, twisting underneath Alexa, but she punched her nose and spat blood out of her mouth.

"Get off me!" She growled, her accent as thick as Rhys.

Alexa snarled, trying to hold her still and managed to grab her stálo. She pressed the button that would turn it into a dagger and dug it deep into the Griod's heart. She let out a pained wail, sounding like a banshee and Alexa grunted as she yanked it out and stumbled away from her.

Noticing the three Griods that were making their way to her, Dram smashed his attacker's head against the ground and sliced it off before digging the Griod's own weapon into his chest. He ran towards Alexa commanding her to duck and jumped over her before blades flew out of his hands and into their hearts.

She widened her eyes. "What the hell was that?"

Dram smirked, yanking her out of harm's way and blocked a stálo that brushed past his ribcage. "Xander needs to teach you what we are capable of doing."

At the mention of Xander, Alexa began to turn in her spot, searching for him. A sigh of relief escaped her lips when she found him, but she frowned worriedly. There were around ten men fighting him all at once; it seemed to be taken out of a movie.

How he fought them all seemed surreal and he seemed not to be struggling at all. If she searched up the definition of warrior a sexy picture of Xander would pop up. A smile grew on her face at the thought, but it was quickly replaced by a grimace when someone slammed her to the ground.

"You think you are worthy enough to be with my son?" Rhys growled quietly, yet the calmness in her voice stirred more fear in her stomach. She'd rather be screaming at the bïtch queen again.

"He seems to think so," Alexa grunted, struggling to crawl away from underneath her.

Rhys wrapped her hands around Alexa's neck, pushing her face down against the soft dirt and growled something in a language she couldn't understand. She certainly didn't know Klázto, but it didn't even sound like it. "I am going to rip the thing that ties him to you before your eyes."

"You're fücking crazy!" Her eyes flashed pitch-black and she snarled her teeth at the queen. "Get the fück off me, you bïtch!"

Alexa managed to kick her leg around the Queen's waist and rolled her around to be on top. The Queen growled, baring her shark-like teeth up at her and Alexa rolled her eyes, mimicking her in annoyance. "Bïtch," she spat, breathlessly as she searched for the stálo blindly.

Rhys snarled, kicking her foot against Alexa's chest and she stumbled backwards, falling on her butt. Alexa groaned, breathing in sharply as she tried to regain her breathing, but she felt nauseous; as if the queen had yanked her lungs out of place.

"Get up!" Rhys taunted, walking around her mockingly.

Alexa rolled her eyes, trying to stand up held back the urge to vomit. She wasn't going to let Mama Bïtch see her weaker than she already thought she was. A loud cry erupted from her chest as she ran towards the Queen with a dagger and she gritted her teeth in satisfaction as she felt it digging deep into her stomach.

The Queen snarled, pushing her back and yanked the dagger out. She threw it on the dirt, stalking towards Alexa, but a Xrion that Alexa didn't recognise tackled her to the ground. He cried something out and Alexa took it as her chance to look for her stálo – or anyone's for that matter.

Suddenly the ground trembled and Alexa groaned. The odds weren't in their favour at all.

She turned to look for the source and widened her eyes in surprise. Around ten military tanks made their way towards the Griods and she felt a sliver of hope. How the hell did they even get on the island?!

As if reading her thoughts, Dram appeared beside her and said, "Some of our men teleported them here."

She nodded her head quickly, turning to look for the Queen, but she wasn't there anymore. The soldier that had tackled her to the ground was facing down, with a dislocated leg and arm. He wasn't breathing.

Military planes began to fly overhead, shooting small missiles at the Griod ship and it suddenly managed to turn into a fight between the Griods against Xrions and the humans. The President had actually sent troops in to help the Xrions.

Not that they were much help because their weapons seemed to only be explosives and the Griods seemed to recover quickly, but it was something. A massive wave of soldiers entered the battlefield and they began to shoot blindly.

"Idiot humans!" A Xrion soldier bellowed as he held unto his leg. It quickly healed, but he didn't seem pleased.

"Tell them not to shoot at my men," Xander growled, as he yanked out the heart of a Griod woman. Alexa blinked slowly and he looked at her for a few seconds before running off to fight.

What. The. Actual. Fück?!

"Different customs, Alexa," Dram grunted, giving signals to a couple of his soldiers, "women are treated equally; killed equally as well."

"He yanked her heart out," she squeaked with wide eyes.

He narrowed his eyes in annoyance and said, "Would you prefer she had taken his out?"

She quickly shook her head and remained quiet. Better her than him. But the scene was still gory and somewhat disturbing her mind. Her fücking heart!

A mixture of shrieks and gun shots exploded through and Alexa turned to see what was happening. Some Griod warriors were running towards the U.S. military and yanking the guns from the soldiers. They would try to defend themselves, but in return the Griods would dig the weapons into their bodies.

Alexa tightened her hold on her stálo and continued fighting her way through the Griods. She lost count of how many she had killed and in her mind it didn't register that she was killing someone.

It didn't feel wrong. She was fighting to survive; defending herself. She could only hope that it wouldn't stay in her conscience and haunt her forever.

A gasp escaped her lips as she was almost yanked backwards by her braid, but she managed to dodge it just in time. Her opponent kicked her back, making her stumble towards the ground and she used the stálo to support herself.

Letting out a bewildered curse, Alexa spun around and blindly stabbed the stálo into her attacker. The girl let out a painful wail and stumbled backwards, falling with the stálo still pierced inside of her.

The look in her black eyes startled Alexa. It was almost as if she had been the one betraying someone; as if she had been the one to attack the girl. The Griod whispered something unrecognisable and Alexa watched as her eyes slowly lost their glimmer. She died.

She shook her head, stepping away from the girl and grimaced as the ground shook under the force of explosives. She was slowly gaining a slight comprehension of what soldiers experienced in the battlefield and she could only praise them for not going crazy.

A grenade went off near her and she stumbled to the ground. Xander let out a growl as he fought of a Griod from his back and ran towards Alexa.

"You need to leave, right now, Alexa."

She shook her head, taking his hand to stand up and said, "No! I told you-"

"It does not matter what you told me!" He roared, his voice making chills run down her spine. She had never seen him like this; he was almost unrecognisable. "What matters is that I need to protect you and I cannot do that if I have ten Griods running after me." He turned away from her, searching for Dram, who slammed his foot down on a Griods skull, shattering it as he snarled something in Klázto.

Alexa widened her eyes, fear slowly boiling in her stomach, but she couldn't leave. There was something in the back of her mind, begging her to stay. If she left, something horrible could happen – she just didn't know what.

"Dram!" Xander ordered, "Take her back home. I do not want her anywhere near this mess."

Dram nodded, fighting off a Griod before making his way towards them quickly. Xander cupped her cheeks, pressing a soft kiss to her lips and yanked the mask back over his face. "Please, Alexandra, I will be able to concentrate more on my opponents, if I know you are safe."

She nodded reluctantly, opening her mouth to ask him why he called her by her full name, but he lunged at someone behind them and Dram grabbed her elbow.

"This way," he urged, wanting to get out of the firing zone before he teleported them somewhere safely. If he didn't, a Griod might join them and hurt Alexa.

"Wait!" Alexa huffed, panic growing within her as she felt a dreaded sense of déjà vu. "Wait!" She cried out again, yanking her arm from Dram's hold, but he wouldn't let go. "I can't go!"

Dram gritted his teeth, pulling her towards him and hissed, "Alexa, we need to go. The longer we take, the longer I will be out of battle and the harder it will be to help Xander."

"Then let me stay!" She begged, "Something's going to happen. I've seen this before. I-I don't remember where or how the hell I've seen it, but I have!"

He frowned at her, yanking her out of a Griod's path and took a deep breath. "Alexa, Xander is the new General; I need to follow his orders. He ordered me to take you back home; I must do that."

She turned from him, frantically searching for him and felt her heart beating harder in her chest. It almost hurt how fast it was thudding. She spun around, her mind feeling dizzy as it tried to remember exactly what the déjà vu was and it suddenly dawned on her.

Xander's death.

At the realisation, she almost vomited and turned a sickly pale colour.

"What's wrong?" Dram frowned down at her.

"X-Xander," she choked out, "where's Xander?"

His frown deepened, but he turned to look for him. "Over there," he pointed to a group that were fighting near the Griod ship.

Alexa nodded and began running in that direction. It had been in her dreams, the exact scene was unfolding and it was making her fingers go numb with fear. The only difference was that Seth had been Xander's murderer.

"Alexa!" Dram bellowed angrily, but he ran after her.

Griod warriors made their way towards her, but she managed to dodge them all or Dram would take care of them with a swift stab to the heart. Surprisingly, they were relatively easy to kill. It was probably their poor choice of armour; they had none.

Their clothing resembled that of American Indian tribe members when they were first colonised. If they weren't pale and had light hair, they could almost look like Disney's version of Pocahontas.

However, that didn't take away from their fearsome appearance. In fact, it almost added to it. They seemed so barbaric and inhuman – more inhuman than they already were, considering that they were Aliens.

A pair of thin cold fingers wrapped around Xander's neck, forcing him to his knees in submission and he frowned. Only parents could force someone – no matter the age – into that type of submission and realisation dawned on him.

Rhys was behind him.

"Mi vjo," She susurrated, her bony fingers caressing the small hairs on the nape of his neck. "Forgive me for abandoning you in Xrion, but your oxpa and I did not agree with Jenks' plans. He was going to Griod and slaughter everyone in his way. We tried to get you, but your father got hurt along the way, so I took a pod and escaped with him to Griod. He died on the trip and I vowed vengeance. In order for me to get it, I could not go back to Xrion and get you."

Xander's heart began to beat extremely hard against his chest. It was thudding in his ears, adrenaline rushing through his veins as he heard the sincerity in his mother's voice. Underneath her chilly and almost estranged tone of voice, truth rang among them. "Ayaní," he whispered, his throat going dry with emotion.

Rhys shook her head and softly said, "And please forgive me for what I am about to do. I did not expect you to be the General of the Xrions, but as long as your people live, mine die." She pulled the dagger from her belt and pressed it against his chest, right above his heart, "And if they have no leader, they will be easier to conquer."

"You sick bïtch!" Alexa cried out, yanking her silky silver hair back with all the force she could muster – and she was pissed; her adrenaline fuelled her strength like no other force could.

Rhys widened her eyes as she stumbled backwards and Alexa climbed on top of her. Her eyes were completely black as she stared down at the Queen with anger and her lips were pulled back, over her teeth in an almost primal look.

She kicked Alexa off, grabbing her stálo in order to fight the challenging human and lunged herself at his son's beloved. Alexa tried to dodge it, but just as she was out of reach, the Queen yanked her arm and slammed her on the ground.

Alexa groaned, quickly standing up and managed to punch her nose before Rhys backhanded her again. She growled, feeling her cheek burning in pain as if the chainmail had dug into her skin and kicked Rhys' knee.

The Queen's leg buckled in pain and Alexa punched her again, smiling in satisfaction when blood began to seep from her mouth and nose.

"Enough!" Xander snarled, not baring the thought of losing Alexa to his mother, but he knew that he couldn't intervene. Once someone challenged a Queen, they had to finish the battle or both parties had to resign.

Dram grabbed Xander's shoulders and pulled him back. He couldn't allow Xander to lose the throne if he intervened.

Alexa slid her foot across the ground, pushing the Queen down on her back and quickly climbed on her.

Rhys tried to struggle from underneath her, but Alexa grabbed her jaw and growled, "Look at me," her voice was unrecognisable. She sounded like a possessed demon and in that moment she was possessed, but by anger. How dare that woman try to hurt what was hers?!

The feeling was overtaking her rationality, but she felt threatened and she would do anything in her power to protect what was rightfully hers; Xander. He had taken her heart and that was hers; it was all justified in her mind.

Alexa dug her nails in the Queen's jaw as she growled, "I want to be the last thing you see before you die." She grabbed her stálo and, before the Queen could get free, quickly pierced her heart with it.

Her eyes widened at the pain exploding in her chest and Alexa pushed herself to stand up. Her legs buckled slightly as all the adrenaline seemed to disappear and her body fought to regain the energy that it didn't have, but it used. "Am I worthy of being with your son now, bïtch?"

Xander let out a disgruntled cry and pushed Alexa away from his mother. "No!"

She frowned, feeling disoriented as she found herself sprawled on the floor and looked up to see Xander pulling the blade from her chest. He frantically tried to stop the bleeding, so the regeneration could help her heal, but she was already dead.

Dram quietly helped Alexa stand up and she stared at the scene before her with confused eyes. She was going to kill him; why was he trying to save her?!

"Come on," Dram tugged her hand, trying to take her away from the scene, "it is best that I take you home now."

"I," she choked as he continued pulling her away and her emotions began to pour out. It was as if a dam had broken in her mind, allowing all of her emotions to go berserk.

All the Griod warriors seemed to stop fighting, as if they were waiting for further instructions. Now that their Queen was dead, they needed to see if her second-in-command wanted to keep on fighting or retreat.

Bombs began to go off on the field and Dram let out a curse as he pushed Alexa on her back and crawled over her.

She stared up at him with wide eyes and hissed, "What are you doing?!"

He narrowed his eyes, trying to shield her body from the explosions. "I am protecting the Queen and her child from death."

"C-child?" Alexa stuttered, closing her eyes as dust rose by them from the detonations.

He nodded, arching his back as he felt dirt flying on his back and waited until it was quiet before standing up. He grabbed her hand and pulled her behind him as he ran towards a safe zone. "Didn't you hear Rhys? A woman can detect another's pregnancy."

"I didn't understand what she said," She whispered, fear and excitement growing in her. She had placed her baby in danger! But if she hadn't, he would've grown up without a father.

Conflicting thoughts began to disturb her mind as they ran along fallen soldiers and more bombs began to go off.

"Don't these humans know when the war is over?!" Dram growled, trying to shield her body with his.

Just as he reached for her, a bomb went off next to them, making them fly back in opposite directions.

Alexa felt her back skidding across the ground with force and her body flipped, rolling alongside the dirt. Her body finally came to a stop, but she felt as if she were paralyzed. Her head smacked against the ground as an ear-piercing white noise began to fill her ears and she hid her face on the ground.

She covered them, whimpering in pain and spat dirt from her lips as she raised her head looking for Dram. He was nowhere near her and as she looked down at herself, blood was pooling around her.

~*~